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FACES IN THE CROWD
JOHN RANAGAN
YORKTOWN, N.Y. > LACROSSE
Ranagan, a junior middie at Johns Hopkins, scored the game-winner with five seconds left in overtime to defeat top-ranked, defending NCAA champion Virginia 11--10. Two weeks later he scored a career-high four goals to lead the Blue Jays to their 12th straight home win (17--6 over Albany). The only sophomore to earn first-team All-America honors in 2011, Ranagan has 12 goals and five assists through Sunday.
CAYLA HATTON
FARMINGTON, CONN. > TRACK AND FIELD
Cayla, a senior at Phillips Andover, ran her first competitive 10K in an Olympic trial B-standard cut of 33:17.28 at the Tufts Snowflake Classic for the No. 2 girls' national high school finish of all time. In November she won the USATF New England Regionals open division 6K (20:54), and in February she was second in the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix junior mile (4:51.37). She will run for Stanford this fall.
JAMEL HUDSON
BAY SHORE, N.Y. > WRESTLING
Jamel, a senior at St. Anthony's and a three-time New York Catholic schools champ, was named state wrestler of the year last week. He set a state tournament record fastest pin (0:08 in the first round) en route to his first state title (132 pounds), in February. An aspiring professional entertainer, Jamel sang an impromptu rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner when a recording failed to play before the finals.
SARA PLOURDE
BRISTOL, CONN. > SOFTBALL
Plourde, a senior righthander at UMass, fanned the 1,344th batter of her career to break the Atlantic 10 record (set by Olympian Danielle Henderson) in a 1--0 win over Quinnipiac at the Minutewomen's home opener. Plourde, who led Division I in strikeouts for the past two seasons, has a 2.29 ERA and leads D-I again this year with 304 K's through Sunday (1,425 total, good for 11th place in D-I history).
CHARLES COPTI
WYCKOFF, N.J. > FENCING
Charles, a senior at Ramapo High and the nation's 18th-ranked junior sabre fencer, retained his individual state title and was named boys' fencer of the year by The Star-Ledger and The Record newspapers. He led his sabre team to gold at the elite Cetrulo tournament and to silver at the state squad finals, and finished with a 119--6 career record. His coach, Olympian Paul Apostol, was a 1966 Face in the Crowd.
AMY GLEN
ANCHORAGE > NORDIC SKIING
Glen, a senior at Vermont, won the 15K classic at the NCAA Division I championships in Bozeman, Mont., in 53:25.1 to beat out Dartmouth's Sophie Caldwell in a photo finish by just 1/10 of a second. A two-inch difference gave Glen her first collegiate win and helped the Catamounts to their first NCAA title since 1994 (the sixth in program history) with 832 total points, for a record 161-point margin of victory.
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DEAD BALL ERA
Baseball's opening week had a throwback feel. In Broward County, Fla., where Joe DiMaggio spent his last days, voters received an e-mail invitation to a fund-raiser for sheriff's candidate Louie Granteed to be "hosted and endorsed" by Joltin' Joe. (In reality the dead slugger's approval came from his longtime lawyer, who is legally empowered to do such things.) And in bookstores, readers got a glimpse of a world in which another icon, Ted Williams, lives again. Bruce E. Spitzer's Extra Innings imagines the Kid revived, in 2092, using cryonics. So, what's Williams up to? Batting against "Botwinder" robots and piloting jets in a war against Afghanistan—a vision that makes the 2012 Mets' spending four days in first place a little less fantastic.
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BEAR HILL MEDIA (BOOK)
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AP (DIMAGGIO)
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JOHNS HOPKINS ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS (RANAGAN)
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JAMIE LOVE (HATTON)
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TEDDY LEE (HUDSON)
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THOM KENDALL/UMASS SID (PLOURDE)
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CHAD MATTHEW CARLSON (COPTI)
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VERMONT ATHLETICS (GLEN)